Running Red Lights and Stop Signs in Florida

Penalties and enforcement for running red lights and stop signs in Florida.

Running a stop sign or red light is one of the most common
moving violations (especially popular when police officers must meet their
ticket quotas for the month). Here are the basics on the enforcement, defenses
and penalties for this offense in Florida.

Where and How to Stop

Stop signs and traffic lights, sometimes referred to as
traffic-control devices, are placed at intersections and crossings requiring
the driver to come to a full stop at the “limit line” (a line painted on the
street indicating where to stop), or if there is no limit line, at the entrance
to the intersection or crossing.

Penalties

The fine for running a stop sign or red light is
approximately $125 (3 points) in Florida. A red light camera ticket is
approximately $158 (no points). These fines may change over time and differ by
county. Check with the county clerk for the most current fines.

“The Right on Red” Rule

Like most states, Florida allows drivers to make a turn on a
red light in certain situations – typically if there is no sign prohibiting
"right on red," and if it is safe to do so under the circumstances.

Left on Red Rule

Florida allows left turns on red provided both the origin
and destination streets are one way.

The “Yellow-Light Rule” in Florida

In Florida it is not illegal to deliberately drive through a
yellow light. A yellow light means only that traffic facing the light is
“warned” that a red light will soon follow. As long as your vehicle entered the
intersection or passed the crosswalk or limit line before the light turned red,
you haven’t broken the law.

Possible Defenses:

The
officer could not see your full stop. Occasionally, an officer will park on
a cross street so that all is visible is the stop sign and limit line, and maybe
a few feet of road in front of the line or sign. A conscientious driver might
well come to a complete stop a few feet behind the line where the officer can’t
see; then, having already stopped as required, drive ahead into the
intersection. If this happens to you, you should try to find out where the
officer was parked. Later you can take pictures from that location to show just
how limited the officer’s view was.

You could
not see the stop sign or red light. It may happen that local conditions
made the device unviewable to you—for example, leaves from adjacent trees
covered or obscured your view of a stop
sign until it was too late to stop. This too can be shown with photographic
evidence, and establishes the defense that you were neither willful nor criminally
negligent in driving through it.

The
“recently installed” defense. One other possible (if rare) defense applies
to newly installed devices. For example, it’s all too easy to miss seeing a
recently installed stop sign on a familiar road. Willfulness or carelessness is
an implied essential element of every violation and a judge may find you not
guilty if the stop sign wasn’t visible until too late, or you didn’t realize it
had just been installed.

“Didn’t
stop at the line” defense. People
sometimes get a ticket because they stopped in front of the limit line or
crosswalk, rather than behind. If this happens to you, perhaps you can
truthfully testify that it hasn’t been repainted for so long that it was
unnoticeable. Here again, a picture is truly better than a thousand words.

Red Light Cameras

You
weren’t driving the car. If this is the case, the photograph should
demonstrate that someone else was driving your vehicle;

The
yellow light was too short. In some cases, it has been discovered that
municipalities have deliberately shortened the duration of yellow lights in
order to increase the odds of running the light (and ratcheting up the town’s
traffic enforcement revenue). If you want to make this claim, you should time
the duration of the yellow light to see if it differs substantially from other
nearby yellow lights. This argument may not succeed in all states.

Some
states require that warning signs be posted to make you aware of photo
enforcement at the upcoming red light. Some states require warning signs
for red light cameras. If you can prove that the municipality did not provide
warning signage, you may be able to succeed in your red light camera defense.
(Photos are essential to this defense.)